An Array of Beautiful Flowers!
Summer flowers
by Lydia Parkinson
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider the beauty of flowers, especially in summer.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (An Array of Beautiful Flowers!) and the means to display them.
- Optional: you may wish to have various flowers available for the children to see and smell.
Assembly
- Ask the children what they like best about summer.
Listen to a range of responses. - Point out that many people love the colours of summer in nature, especially the beautiful flowers and trees. Explain that many people plant flowers in their gardens, but there are also many wildflowers that grow in nature.
- Explain that you are going to show some pictures of wildflowers. You would like the children to look at the pictures and see if they can identify the flowers.
- Show Slides 1-8.
For each slide, ask if the children have seen the flowers shown, and if they can name them.
Explain that many of these flowers grow in gardens and parks, and some are sometimes described as weeds!
- Slide 1 shows daisies.
- Slide 2 shows buttercups.
- Slide 3 shows dandelions.
- Slide 4 shows red clover.
- Slide 5 shows poppies.
- Slide 6 shows foxgloves.
- Slide 7 shows cow parsley.
- Slide 8 shows a cornflower. - Tell the children that many people now plant wildflower seeds in their gardens. Ask if any of them have done this themselves.
- Show Slide 9.
Wildflowers provide a beautiful array of colour.
Show Slide 10.
They also attract insects and help with conservation of the ecosystem.
Time for reflection
We are fortunate to have different seasons that are full of a variety of colours and beauty.
Christians, and people from many other religions, believe that God made the world full of variety and beauty. He wants us to enjoy the diversity that surrounds us, and he wants us to care for the environment and do all that we can to protect it.
Jesus himself loved flowers. He said that they were more beautiful than King Solomon dressed in his finest robes (Luke 12.27).
Prayer
Dear God,
We thank you for the beauty of the world.
We thank you for the different seasons and the joy that they bring.
We thank you for summer and the beautiful colours that fill the world.
Please help us to do all that we can to protect the world in which we live.
Amen.
Song/music
‘Circle of life’ from the film The Lion King, available at: https://youtu.be/GibiNy4d4gc (4.06 minutes long)
‘Think of a world without any flowers’, available at: https://youtu.be/VeTdh-oHJak (2.15 minutes long)
